


Confession

by fleckphantasma



Series: Iron Hearts [2]
Category: The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
Genre: Family, Fear, Gen, Internal Conflict, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 17:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4272159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleckphantasma/pseuds/fleckphantasma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Recent events and the whispers of court have brought Katherine to the chapel, where she prays for guidance and finds it elsewhere. - Takes place after "All For One, And One For Love" and the events of Chateau Montblanc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confession

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little thing that I came up with shortly after completing my previous work "All For One, And One For Love." The muse for the character was still fresh in my mind and so this was the result. It follows the events of the previously mentioned fiction, so it might not make a whole lot of sense to anyone who hasn't read that, but I welcome your input all the same!

> The stone floor of the chapel was cold beneath her knees. Even with the many candles around her to illuminate the altar and the various offerings that had been left by others, the warmth of them did not reach the floor or the aching joints in her body. She was only twenty years old. Her body should not yet have felt the terrible protests of age that would surely come in time, and yet her past adventures seemed to have caught up to her. Her abduction and brief imprisonment at Chateau Montblanc had taken its toll on her body and forced the young woman to accept the bitter truth that her youth was slowly being robbed from her. She could no longer run as she used to without feeling the tightening of muscles in her side that prevented her from breathing, nor could she continue to hold upright the sword that she had been using since birth.
> 
> Of course, neither of those things were meant for her anymore. They were improper for young ladies, especially those who occupied her position. She would have to give them up for more lady-like pursuits, abandoning her former life for a brand new one that needed to be learned.
> 
> A soft sigh fell from her lips as she lifted her head away from the rosary in her hands and looked up instead at the image before her, of the Blessed Virgin to whom she prayed so fervently. Was she ever truly going to be ready for this? Was this what she was meant to become? All those years of wishing and dreaming for something new and exciting had prepared her for a great many things, but this was far above even her wildest imaginings. She was but a simple girl, after all, and simple girls were never allowed the close proximity to nobility that she was. And if this was all just a dream then she prayed that she might wake soon and forever be able to put this behind her.
> 
> "Please," she begged softly. "Please tell me what I must do."
> 
> "Kate?"
> 
> Startled by the unannounced presence of another, the young woman gasped and turned sharply to look behind her for the source of the sound. But when she saw him, her mind and body were immediately put at ease, for she knew that he was not there to harm her. Her heart still pounded wildly in her chest however, as it did every time she heard someone approach her from behind these days.
> 
> "Papa, you should know better than to sneak up on me like that."
> 
> "What are you doing on the floor, child? The physician was very clear with you."
> 
> Coming around to her side, Aramis offered both of his hands down to his daughter and slowly helped her rise to her feet again, careful not to force her movements to be any faster than her body would allow. Though it had been almost a month since she had been saved from the Chateau he still worried after her health, for she did not seem to heal quite as quickly as she once had. One of his arms wound itself around her waist as a precaution, the other holding tightly to her hand as he looked down upon her with a small frown.
> 
> "I was praying-"
> 
> "Yes, I can see that," he said a little dismissively. "As you've done every day since you came into my life."
> 
> The young woman smiled softly. "Well, perhaps not  _every_  day, Papa."
> 
> No, Aramis supposed not. It was not hard for him to forget the child she had once been, a carefree spirit who was far more content to run around the outside of the monastery walls than to kneel down on the hard floor of the chapel with himself and the other priests for the various moments throughout the day when their souls had demanded prayer. For the first several years of her life she had been unable to grasp the concept of prayer due to her youth, but as she grew there had only been so much that the child had been able to endure. So it had fallen to his friends, the adoptive uncles that she had known all her life, to occupy her when he was called to the chapel. And it was a task that none of them had ever minded.
> 
> "The others were beginning to worry about you," the old priest continued softly, removing his hand from her smaller one so that he could properly brush a strand of hair from her face with fatherly affection. "They have not seen you for several hours now. And Philippe-"
> 
> That was it, he thought. As soon as he saw the wide-eyed, startled look that his daughter gave him when he mentioned the name of the young man who had fallen in love with her, Katherine had frozen in his arms. Even after everything that they had endured since their first meeting in the depths of the Bastille they were still battling other demons, or at least one of them was. It seemed that the young man had grown even more protective and smitten with the girl since they had returned from Chateau Montblanc and buried his twin brother Louis. And for a while that seemed to work just fine for them. But now? Now there was evidently something else amiss, something that was going unsaid and threatening the very foundations that they had worked so hard to preserve.
> 
> It was the gentle quiver in her body that forced Aramis to refocus his thoughts at that moment, quickly securing his daughter with his other hand as he drew her close to his chest and simply held her there in his firm embrace. Katherine did not protest her father's actions, but laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes as she tried to regain her balance. Though she wished to say otherwise, she knew that she was still suffering from the treatment she had endured at Louis' hands during her capture. Neither he nor Tolbert had wanted any of her strength to return lest she attempt to fight them off.
> 
> The very memory of what his precious child had suffered through was enough to make the old man's blood boil in anger, knowing that he should have been there to protect her, that he shouldn't have allowed her to attempt a return to the monastery without an armed guard to escort her there. He had practically handed her over to Louis when he had watched her carriage disappear out the back gates of the palace that day.
> 
> "Papa, let it go," she murmured gently, lifting her head so that she could look at him properly again. "It was no more your fault than it was mine. We had no way of knowing that they planned to trap me."
> 
> Aramis frowned. "How did you-"
> 
> "You grew tense," answered the girl, a soft touch of a smile on her lips. "You always do when you are thinking about it."
> 
> Despite himself, Aramis couldn't help but return her smile and lean forward to gently kiss his daughter on the forehead as he continued to hold her tightly against him. He had always known that she would grow to be a clever child, but he didn't quite want to accept that that child had since grown into a clever  _woman_. Not because her sex was an issue, but because in acknowledging that she was no longer a child Aramis knew that he would soon have to accept the inevitable.
> 
> Soon she would no longer be his to protect.
> 
> "Perhaps, my dear, we should discuss-"
> 
> "No!"
> 
> The swiftness of her response and the fear in her eyes was enough to give Aramis pause, his mind attempting to understand what it was that frightened her so. They both knew what the future would hold for her, it was foolish to try and dismiss it. The intentions of the boy had been made perfectly clear to him from the moment the pair had been reunited after that brief moment when his world had been shattered because he had thought his daughter killed at the hands of the ruthless boy-king that they had succeeded in replacing. But when everything had been set right again and he saw his daughter in the arms of a man…well, Aramis finally understood.
> 
> What he didn't understand, however, was why Katherine seemed so determined to push it aside again.
> 
> "No," she whispered again, dropping her head. "Papa…he…you cannot allow him to do this. France needs stability, an ally who will come to our aid if and when we ever find ourselves in need of help again. The English have always had their eye on us, and who knows when they will next try to invade our shores?"
> 
> It was an excuse he had heard many times over the course of his life, though most of them had come during his days as a musketeer, protecting the old King Louis from both the threat of the English and the backstage schemes of Cardinal Richelieu. And though it was a legitimate concern for the kingdom, it was not something that should be standing in the way of what Aramis was ultimately hoping to see.
> 
> A moment of silence passed between them before at last the old man decided on his approach.
> 
> "What has you so worried, my darling?"
> 
> "I told you, Papa, the English-"
> 
> "No," Aramis said, shaking his head as he cut her off. "What has  _you_  worried?"
> 
> Katherine didn't immediately respond to her father's question, but gently bit at her bottom lip as she searched for the correct words that might summarize her ultimate fear. "What if I fail him?"
> 
> There, the question had been asked.
> 
> When her father did not immediately respond to her question, Katherine slowly pulled herself away until she was standing at arm's length, turning her dark eyes back to the altar and the image of the Virgin Mary who stood regally before it. It was for guidance that Katherine had come in there earlier, begging that someone share the wisdom that she so desperately needed at this moment in her life. She was so overwhelmed by the talk that she was already hearing among the people who frequently came and went from court that she barely knew which way to turn anymore, and the constant pressure that was beating down on her was enough to break any young woman of twenty who had not been raised with the intention of entering such a high station.
> 
> "I was not meant for a life like this," Katherine began gently, allowing her gaze to flicker around the room for a moment before she turned and settled her eyes back on her father. "You did not raise me to be a lady of the court, and there was no reason that you should. I needed only the simplest of things in my life, and as long as I had you and my uncles then I knew I was going to be alright."
> 
> Aramis stood motionlessly, his eyes locked on his daughter as she slowly approached him once more and offered out her hands, which he immediately grasped.
> 
> "I do not know how to keep my tongue. I never truly have. You raised me to be conscious of the feelings of others but not to be bullied into submission by one who speaks with eloquent words and empty promises. How can I possibly stand by and give up everything I am? Because that is what it would mean, Papa. By giving Philippe the answer that I know he shall seek…I shall have to give up being me."
> 
> As he blinked down at her and the worry that had crossed her face, Aramis slowly came to realize just what it was that had been plaguing his daughter so. For the last several days she had been out of sorts, acting like every shadow contained someone who might jump out at any moment to frighten her. If she was not outside walking in the gardens then she was alone in her room, instructed by the court physician to rest her body as much as possible. She was afraid, she knew that simply by looking at her. But it wasn't just the idea of angering the people and putting them at risk that frightened her, it was the very idea of failing Philippe by dishonouring the position that he would place her in.
> 
> Katherine was right, she hadn't be raised with the expectation of being anything more than the foundling daughter of a priest. Who in the world could have predicted that things would turn out as they had? But that certainly didn't mean that Aramis thought his daughter unsuited to the station that was soon to be offered at all. If nothing else, he knew that it would mean more to the people of France than Katherine could ever dream. There would be someone in a higher position of power who understood their struggles, someone who would openly care for them and never allow the monarchy to forget about them ever again. It would be through her example that future generations would learn how to care for their people instead of blame them for their existence as Louis had done before.
> 
> And it was through Katherine that Aramis and his friends would finally see the peace that they had fought so long and hard for.
> 
> His thumbs brushed gently over the soft skin of her hands as he smiled down at his daughter, meeting her fearful eyes with a look of soft compassion. "I do not believe that you have anything to fear, my darling," he told her. "If Philippe should ask you, and I do not doubt that he one day will…I do not believe that anyone shall bring him as much happiness as you will. Through you, France will flourish as never before."
> 
> Katherine shook her head. "You cannot possibly know this, Papa."
> 
> But Aramis was not to be shaken off easily. One of his hands released the hold that it possessed and instead moved to lift her chin gently until their eyes once again met. "Yes, my daughter, I can."
> 
> In a flash Katherine had pulled away from his hand and wrapped both of her arms tightly around his chest, once again burying her face against the soft velvet of his tunic as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. With a small sigh of relief, Aramis wrapped his own arms around her and laid his scratchy cheek atop her head, closing his own eyes in quiet contentment. No, he thought to himself. His precious little girl was no longer the child that he had once been able to carry in his arms, but instead was now a grown woman who had already shown more compassion and understanding in her twenty years than most did in an entire lifetime.
> 
> If Philippe were to ask for his blessing, Aramis would give it wholeheartedly.
> 
> "I love you, Papa."
> 
> "And I you, my darling."


End file.
